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Satire is…  Satire is a rhetorical strategy in which human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, irony, or other methods, ideally with an intent to bring about improvement.  In the strict sense satire is a literary genre, but the larger notion of satire, poking fun at the foibles of others, is also found in the graphic and performing arts.

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Questions during reading of Satire:  Underlying assumptions of this piece  What foolish, flawed, or wrong human action or aspect of society is being lampooned?  What would the author’s argument look like stripped of its humor?  What resources of language does the satirist use to skewer the target?  What is the goal of the satirist?

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Elements of Satire  Exaggeration/Hyperbole To enlarge, increase, or represent something beyond normal bounds so that it becomes ridiculous and its faults can be seen.  Incongruity To present things that are out of place or are absurd in relation to its surroundings. Particular techniques include oxymoron, metaphor, and irony.  Malapropism/pun Any construction capable of conveying a double meaning is likely to be employed in satire, since multiple meanings form the basis of much of satire.  Irony:  Juxtaposition of incongruous things:

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Elements of Satire  Reversal To present the opposite of the normal order. Reversal can focus on the the order of events, such as serving dessert before the main dish or having breakfast for dinner. Additionally, reversal can focus on hierarchical order—for instance, when a young child makes all the decisions for a family or when an administrative assistant dictates what the company president decides and does.  Parody To imitate the techniques and/or style of some person, place, or thing in order to ridicule the original. For parody to be successful, the reader must know the original text that is being ridiculed.  Oxymoron

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Satire Technique  Invective: a speech that criticizes someone or something fluently and at length. This technique may also be called a diatribe or rant.

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Purposes of Satire:  Although satire is usually intended to be funny, the purpose of satire is not primarily humor as much as criticism, using the weapon of wit.  A very common, almost defining feature of satire is its strong vein of irony or sarcasm, using parody, exaggeration, juxtaposition, comparison, analogy, and double entendre.

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Typical Satire Targets and Tones:  Satire is often aimed at hypocrisy in social institutions or used for political commentary, but great satire often takes as its target human self-deception in one form or another.  Satire can vary in tone from bemused tolerance to bitter indignation.

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Famous Satires:  Voltaire's Candide (1759) gleefully poked fun at the fashionable optimism associated with the philosopher Leibniz and is among the most recognized satires in the Western literary canon.  George Orwell's Animal Farm (1945), in contrast, savagely criticized the totalitarian machinery of government that emerged in the Soviet Union following the Utopian promises of the Russian Revolution.